Blogs

The sanctity of the election process is the bedrock of Indian democracy. Over the last few months, however, the faith in this process has been shaken due to serious allegations of EVM tampering from multiple parts of the country.

While AAP was the first to express these concerns, 16 opposition parties have now made allegations about tampering and have urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to revert to paper ballots - an unprecedented event in the last two decades ever since the EVMs were introduced in India. Under such circumstances, it is incumbent upon the ECI to do all that is necessary to dispel fears and convincingly prove the reliability of EVMs.

When the Aam Aadmi Party formed the government in Delhi in 2015, we knew we had inherited a public school system that was in shambles. What we did not know was how deep the rot ran. Subject to decades of neglect and intentional subversion by vested interests of politicians with flourishing private school ‘business’, Delhi’s government schools suffered handicaps at all levels - severe shortage of rooms and teachers, low motivation among teachers and principals, and most importantly, abysmal learning levels with 3 out of 4 students in Class 6 unable to even read their books.

Over the last two years, the AAP government has laid a strong foundation for what truly promises to be an ‘Education Revolution’ by undertaking a sustained and systematic effort to rebuild a broken public education system.

Our government believes that the relationship between a government and its citizens is nothing short of a sacred contract. A contract to deliver the best possible outcomes and benefits to society for the money the taxpayers have contributed. Accountability of the government’s actions therefore is crucial for this contract to be fulfilled.

I am happy to present the first comprehensive “Outcome Budget” of GNCTD, which will prove to be a historic innovation for ushering in transparency and accountability in public spending. It is important to understand why this is an important budgeting reform.

So what is it that the students are really demanding? In two words, Fair Representation. Fair representation comes in two forms.

Ability for non English speaking students to have a fair chance in the exam (currently the screening & scoring mechanism skewed in favour of those who speak English)

The exam to be fair to students from Humanities background as well (currently skewed in favour of Science & Math students)

For the qualifying comprehension – the quality of translation puts the folks taking the test at a disadvantage as the meaning gets distorted in translation and therefore students get their answers wrong

For the language understanding paper – the level of English tests and the level of hindi tests when chosen as a second language are not the same. So students taking English as first language and hindi as second have an advantage over students taking regional language as primary and English as second. In the former case, students can score higher as the level of hindi is quite basic. In the latter case the level of English is high and students fall behind the former set.

Aam Aadmi Party believes that the students are taking up a just cause.Read More

Here is why E-Rickshaws are important. Their advantages range from economics, efficiency and most importantly, environmental friendliness.

1. Being battery operated, they produce no pollutants and hence are very eco-friendly.

2. Cost effective for passengers

3. They reduce the country’s dependance of foreign oil and hence the ability to reduce the oil import burden of the country.

4. Has one of the highest passenger to vehicle size ratio. This means, that is congested cities, these E-Rickshwas can become the most effective mode of public transport

5. Since they are relatively inexpensive, lots of people can be incentivised to own & operate these. They thus provide for a strong case of public/private cooperation in the area of public transport

Aam Aadmi Party respects the court’s order to ban them in the absence of any clear policy or regulation. It believes that the solution, therefore, lies in framing clear, practical policies for e_Rickshaws so that the court can lift the ban on these and they become a safe, efficient and most importantly, an environment friendly mechanism of public transport. Read More

In the parliamentary form of democracy, voters are often confused between voting for a party or voting for an individual candidate. Some recent examples may help answering the question for the futureRead More